General Director of Saigon Petro Dang Vinh Sang said that despite the Government's recent decision to cut the petrol import tax, importers still made a loss of VND800 per litre of petrol and VND600 per litre of diesel oil.

The finance ministry on Tuesday decided to exempt import tax on petrol and cut the tariff on oil from 5 to 3 per cent to stabilise the domestic market in the context of rising oil prices on the global market over the past few weeks. Imported oil prices in Singapore, the main source of Viet Nam's imported petrol and oil, have risen sharply, reaching US$130 per barrel, up nearly 6 per cent against January.

"The loss forces us to cut commission given to retailers from VND350 per litre to VND300 as of Wednesday," Sang said, adding that the cut was the second this year. Previously, Saigon Petro had cut the rate from VND600 to VND350 per litre.

The Military Petroleum Corporation also had to cut its commission to VND300-350 per litre.

Though not detailing the commission rate given to retailers, Vuong Thai Dung, deputy general director of Petrolimex, which accounts for roughly 60 per cent of the local petrol market share, said that compared with the commission rates given to retailers of other petrol and oil importers, that of Petrolimex was the lowest.

Ethanol petrol sales stop rumour rejected

PV Oil affirmed that its processing and sale of ethanol (E5) petrol were still normal after recent rumours that it had to stop operations due to low quality.

The company said that its petrol was still being sold at more than 140 stations nationwide and the corporation would continuously enlarge its distribution network in the coming time. — VNS